


Uncle and Nephew

by Belphegor



Series: Carnahan-O'Connells musings and snapshots [2]
Category: The Mummy Returns (2001), The Mummy Series
Genre: Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:07:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21615805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Belphegor/pseuds/Belphegor
Summary: From the second Evy and Rick told Jonathan that they had a child on the way, he alternated between Absolute Joy and Absolute Terror because “oh my godI’m going to be an uncle” runs on both and oh bloody hell he has NO idea how being an uncle evenworks.He tries his best nonetheless.
Relationships: Jonathan Carnahan & Alex O'Connell
Series: Carnahan-O'Connells musings and snapshots [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1557865
Comments: 16
Kudos: 47





	Uncle and Nephew

Jonathan and Evelyn Carnahan grew up in a loving household but a very small family – namely them, their mother, and their father – because both their parents’ respective families cut ties with them after their wedding. They had cousins, aunts, and uncles, but none of them wanted anything to do with them. So you can bet that from the second Evy and Rick told Jonathan that they had a child on the way, he alternated between Absolute Joy and Absolute Terror because “oh my god _I’m going to be an uncle_ ” runs on both and oh bloody hell he has NO idea how being an uncle even _works_.

But this kid is only going to have one uncle by blood, right? So there’s just no way in hell, heaven, or duat that Jonathan Carnahan will bollocks this up.

(He knows he bollocksed up things enough with Evy. Good lord, he knows. But he’ll get it right this time.)

At first this uncle thing is fairly easy. Alex is a bright baby, easily amused and interested by everything. The only times Jonathan actually panics is when Alex starts crying and he has no idea why. (are all babies so _loud_!?) But then Alex graduates from baby to toddler and Jonathan frequently wonders how the hell all three adults don’t have grey hairs yet. Or regular heart attacks. He’s smart, full of mischief, and _fast_. (And getting a bit heavy to carry around when he’s too lazy to walk up the stairs, too. Not everybody can be bloody 6’3 with ridiculous shoulders, for God’s sake.) Still, he shows interest at a very early age in Egyptian mythology, and while Jonathan can never tell his Rameses (Rameseses?) from his Ptolemys, he’s fairly good at the myths and legends part of it. Even if sometimes he forgets to leave out the gory bits.

The thing is, Alex likes being babysat by his uncle. When his mum and dad go on digs or to other cities and they leave him with someone else, he will express his displeasure in the form of pranks that get more and more creative as he grows up. Evy and Rick – and Jonathan, for that matter – are always waiting for the other shoe to drop, but Alex never unleashes the full power of his brattiness on the three of them. So when he gets a little older, his parents take him everywhere they go.

As for Jonathan, well, he lies. A lot. To a lot of people. Everybody who knows him knows that. But for some reason he never pretends to be someone he’s not with Alex. There’s no false bravado, no posturing – there _is_ a bit of glossing over or oversimplifying things, some “you’ll find out soon enough, trust me” and some “now _this_ I’ll tell you when you’re older”, but Jonathan never told a bald-faced lie to his nephew.

(Except for the time he knelt in front of him, looked him in the eyes, and said “Your mum is going to be just fine.” Alex only really, viscerally understood and forgave that particular lie once he had kids of his own. Technically, that was 95% a lie and 5% wishful thinking, anyway.)

Alex grows up with an uncle who takes him to the movies – _King Solomon’s Mines_ , _Captain Blood_ , the odd Boris Karloff film – and ice cream afterwards; who listens to him with a smile when Alex is excited about a new book he’s just read; who, when he finds his nephew in the kitchen one night after Ahm Shere trying to reach for the biscuit jar on top of the shelf, even though he’s not supposed to, just grabs it, makes tea, and shares the forbidden biscuits.

(One night Evy, who has her share of nightmares and bouts of insomnia too, came down to the kitchen to find uncle and nephew both munching on the aforementioned biscuits. They looked at each other, panicked, and said in unison, each pointing to the other, “IT WAS HIS IDEA.”)

When Alex is nearly thirty years old, his uncle is sixty, grey-haired and lanky with bright blue eyes that mist over when his nephew places his first born in his arms.

“So I’m a great-uncle now, am I?” he says with the same crooked smile as Mum, albeit a little shaky, and Alex thinks he got really lucky with the men in his family. Dad only had a dad for the first ten years of his life, and Uncle Jon never had an uncle, but both turned out pretty great nonetheless.

Alex smiles and says, “Yeah, Uncle Jon. You’re a great uncle.”


End file.
